The board became concerned that Bartlett,an employment lawyer,had stopped supporting Goodwin. Having signed a four-year deal at the end of 2018,Goodwin had to reach certain performance levels to achieve the fourth year (2022) but only compelling circumstances could lead to him being removed before the start of 2021. Other directors strongly backed Goodwin at a meeting of the board early this year and Pert,who over the previous two seasons had identified flaws in both the football department and some of the assistants around the senior coach,was determined that the club finally had the right structure in place for on-field success.

Pert,along with football boss Josh Mahoney,who was replaced 12 months agoand is now at Essendon,saw that the coach was surrounded by an unhealthy number of like-minded disciples in his team of assistants. The tough,contested game plan over the past two seasons that initially defined Goodwin’s style has evolved into a significantly more balanced approach executed by the best midfield in the competition.

Pert assured Goodwin he would be strongly supported going into the 2021 season and despite the strict new code of governance Bartlett introduced to the club,which created new rules around board members fraternising with players and coaches,then vice-president Kate Roffey also contacted the coach to say he was safe and had her backing.

As the numbers stacked against Bartlett in March,his removal as president became a matter of timing and was formalised in April as the Demons were heading into their fourth-straight victory against Geelong. The former president remains on the board and,despite some internal opposition,is reportedly keen to stand for re-election. He will be at Optus Stadium willing on the club he took over - at the AFL’s behest when the club was a basket case at the end of 2013 - to reach its ultimate destination.

Bartlett’s misgivings and relative lack of support for the coach in his last six months was not the only reason for his departure. It was true,as he said at the time,that Bartlett was “cooked”. But the Goodwin relationship certainly played its part. Winning makes everything easier to handle,but it is also true that both Pert and Roffey have encouraged the coach to be himself at his public appearances. The eerily calm and assured leader who was filmed addressing his players after the preliminary final was unrecognisable from the panicked performer at the aforementioned membership forum.

The former president’s supporters say he was right to challenge both coaches and players last season and that his micromanaged governance procedures,which became overly zealous towards the end,had been necessary given the old style at Melbourne,where directors had hosted informal player gatherings at their homes and developed social relationships with previous coaches.

Bartlett deserves credit for where Melbourne sit today,as does the former CEO he fell out with,Peter Jackson. Jackson,also installed by the game’s head office,rebuilt the morale of the club’s deflated administration and stunned the football community when he lured Paul Roos back into senior coaching with the imprimatur of a succession plan. Should the Demons prevail at Optus Stadium on Saturday night Roos,too,could rightly claim some kudos,having anointed two premiership coaches as his successors in John Longmire and Goodwin.

Although Goodwin,who played in Adelaide’s two premierships as a 20 and 21-year-old,came into senior coaching with a couple of black marks on his report card,it was his communication skill that Roos - an admirer of Goodwin’s long-time Crows coach Neil Craig - liked the day they first met in a meaningful sense at Todd Viney’s house in late 2014,almost one year after Roos’ first choice Stuart Dew had rejected the succession-plan offer.

Despite Goodwin’s admitted gambling addiction,which led to him being suspended as a player,and his minor role in the Essendon drugs scandal,Roos saw him as a potential coaching leader,largely due to his football integrity and the cultural ideal he saw in Melbourne’s future. For Roos,it was more about that cultural connection,and less about the strategic side of coaching that led to Goodwin being revered as a midfield coach during his time at Essendon and quickly won over the Demons’ players when he worked as an assistant.

That cultural journey overseen by Goodwin has manifested itself in the club’s on-field leadership. The new coach ruffled some feathers when he thrust the young Jack Viney into co-captaincy with Nathan Jones in 2017 and ultimately successfully settled upon Max Gawn,who wanted to lead on his own,in 2020. Even the handling of Jones’ retirement was handled with class and a minimum of public fuss,a far cry from the club’s treatment of former captains and favourite sons including Brad Green,Jacks Grimes and Trengove,and notably James McDonald.

Looking back over Goodwin’s difficult two seasons that followed the 2018 preliminary final loss in Perth to the 2021 minor premiership and devastating September run to the grand final,is also reminiscent of Richmond at the end of 2016. Then as now both the coach and the board had come under significant pressure. In both cases the coach survived and thrived. In Richmond’s case the president stared down her opponents and,while overseeing a number of changes,strongly backed the coach.

Right or wrong,Bartlett had his doubts about Goodwin. Richmond’s Damien Hardwick went on to become a three-time premiership coach over the next four years. Melbourne’s new president Kate Roffey believes Goodwin has put in place a team capable of doing something similar.

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